DANIEL PERSON
TRIBUTE TO NEIL DIAMOND
SUPERDIAMOND 1/22
FOREVERLAND AN ELECTRIFYING 14-PIECE TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL JACKSON
1/9
STS9
9:00PM
KEXP, SHOWBOX & TRACTOR TAVERN PRESENT
JD MCPHERSON with HONEYHONEY
1/12
with MIKE DOUGHTY
with THEY.
1/25 7:30PM
TRIBAL SEEDS with THE SKINTS + THE STEPPAS
1/21
BRYSON TILLER
8:30PM
BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS
1/14
1/23
8:00PM
9:00PM
8:30PM
8:00PM
NEVERSHOUTNEVER with JULE VERA AND WATERPARKS + METRO STATION
1/26
7:30PM
HOODIE ALLEN UNDEROATH with SUPER DUPER KYLE + BLACKBEAR
2/5
9:00PM
3/30
7:30PM
3/31
8:00PM
DARK STAR IRATION + PEPPER ORCHESTRA KEXP’S POSITIVE VIBRATIONS AND SHOWBOX PRESENT HAWAIIAN PUNCH WINTER TOUR
with NEW KINGSTON
2/19
9:00PM
SHOWBOX AND USC EVENTS PRESENT
2/20
3/24
BORGEOUS + MORGAN PAGE with DELORA
MASTERS OF ILLUSION
MOORE THEATRE
9:00PM
4/4
CIARA
8:00PM
HATSUNE MIKU 8:00PM
4/23
WAMU THEATER
SHOWBOXPRESENTS.COM
8:00PM
SE ATTLE WEEKLY • JAN UARY 6 — 12, 2016
the wolf ’s return to Yellowstone distracts from on National Geographic centerfolds, and in this greater ecological problems. “The warmest temnewspaper. Americans may know this story betperatures in 6,000 years are changing forests and ter than any other from ecology, and its grip on grasslands. . . . Natural-gas drilling is affecting our imagination is one of the field’s proudest the winter ranges of migratory wildlife. To procontributions to wildlife conservation. But there tect cattle from disease, our government agencies is a problem with the story: It’s not true.” still kill many bison that migrate out of the park These findings have extended the endless, and in search of food.” endlessly frustrating, debate over wolves in the A skeptic could see December’s fisher release continental United States—if not for the trophic as a token gesture, an empty genuflection toward cascade, why have wolves at all? Which leads to the ideals of conservation. Seven large weasel-like the second problem with justifying a species with creatures do not a restored ecosystem make. And hard statistics: the suggestion that any justificawhat if the media spectacle of the fisher release is tion is needed for reversing mankind’s impact on just distracting from more pressing issues? wildlife beyond the clearly self-evident one. “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive— “We messed things up in the past,” Werntz restoring degraded habitat and working to says. “We made mistakes and we caused species restore species that live in that habitat,” says that make their home in Washington to disappear Werntz. “They can all happen simultaneously and or decline to the point they are no longer recovershould happen simultaneously. ing on their own. If we were to do nothing, then “The reason we are able to release the fisher the fisher would not likely come back. We had is because we made 70 to 80 years with no decisions in the past to fisher trapping in the protect habitat. These state, and they didn’t are the key things in come back on their wildlife conservation own. So you’re faced that we need to be with a pretty bright doing simultaneously. line of choice: You We need to be coneither recover the spenecting habitat and cies or you live with we need to be rewildthat wrong. ing it.” “I think we have That logic will hold an obligation to make true, to a scale an order good, to fix what we of magnitude greater, broke in the past.” with the return of the No doubt, there grizzly to Washingremain purely selfton. The reason the ish—or human—reanorthern Cascades are sons to bring back being studied for reinspecies. By some troduction isn’t simply reasoning, our desire that griz were there to save the fisher is as A tracking device of the type before—that can be much in our nature as used to monitor released fishers. said of almost all westthe fisher’s desire to ern North America. But the northern Cascades hunt a vole. represents one of the only wild areas in the Lower “It’s pretty unique to humans to be capable of 48 large enough to support a viable population. having so much of our perception of the world That is not by accident, but by virtue of deliberate based on learning rather than genes,” McCord, efforts to protect the area from mining, logging, author of The Value of Species, notes in a phone and housing development. The grizzly bear, then, interview. “A bat will never know the wondrous and the fisher, and the pronghorn, can be seen as thing it is. Who could be dismissive of that the fulfillment of work done a generation ago to power and what we’re given in that capacity?” protect habitat, even when the beneficiaries of that “It’s awfully exciting,” offers a beaming Mitch habitat were not around to enjoy it. Friedman, executive director of Conservation And in a circular way, these species may well Northwest, following the fisher release. “It’s worth encourage more investment in habitat protection it for the emotional value. For us to be having this by re-engaging people with the outdoors. reverse apocalypse, it’s a wonderful story.” By increasing the biodiversity of a forest, McCord notes, you are “increasing immensely The reverse apocalypse is indeed a wonderful the intellectual excitement” of it. That in turn story, but is it true? may help people re-engage with Seattle’s wild When one stops squinting at the single metric backyard, which can seem a world away from the of restored species in Washington and considers traffic jams of South Lake Union. the wider state of wildlife in the state, things still “Letting people know they might see a wollook pretty grim. Down around Olympia, pocket verine, or there’s a chance to see a wolverine, gophers continue to see declines for the simple that’s going to make the woods and the mounreason that their habitat happens to be flat tains a much more interesting and enticing place lowlands good for housing developments. Lynx to be,” says Werntz. “We’ve made good decisions number under 100 in the state, and are headed in how we manage the habitat in a way that in the wrong direction. For all the effort, many makes room for species like the fisher. This is sort conservationists grumble privately that it’s hard to be too optimistic about the woodland caribou’s of the natural outcome to that.” E long-term fate in Washington, severely comprodperson@seattleweekly.com mised as its habitat stands. John Fleckenstein, zoologist for the WashingSeattle Weekly News Editor Daniel Person ton Department of Natural Resources, dispenses received a prestigious Sigma Delta Chi award from the cold water: “If you look at sheer numbers, I’m the Society of Professional Journalism for his reportsure there are lots more mammals that are sliping on the return of the gray wolf to Yellowstone ping downhill in Washington than are improving National Park. He’s seen only one grizzly bear in their conservation status.” in his life—a boar in full sprint across a scree field Middleton, in the Times, argued that lionizing in the Scapegoat Wilderness.
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